The present disclosure relates generally to computational imaging systems—that is, imaging systems designed with the main goal to capture images used for computational tasks rather than to capture visually pleasing images. More specifically, this disclosure describes systems and methods capable of capturing images that can be robustly used for corner detection.
Corner detection is the first task required for many computer vision tasks, such as image recognition, localization, SLAM (simultaneous localization and mapping) and tracking. SLAM, in particular, finds applications in robotics, navigation systems, autonomous vehicles—including terrestrial, aerial, marine, submersed and spatial navigation, to name a few. It also finds applications in augmented reality, virtual reality and other applications that require the mapping of an environment.
The computer vision literature usually assumes operation using images captured using traditional imaging systems, so much that the pinhole camera assumption is ubiquitous. This assumption ignores the benefits of increased operational robustness and design flexibility provided by computational imaging devices such as the ones described in the present disclosure.